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July was actually a pretty good month for me – I ended up reading 7 books, and 27 issues of comics. I feel like maybe I’m forgetting some comics there, I thought it was a little higher.

I’m VERY hopeful for August, as you may be able to tell from the giant stack below. No major birthdays, events, or celebrations this month AND there’s a Bout of Books readathon, so I should be a reading monster.

From top to bottom…

Subliminal: How You Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior by Leonard Mlodinow – I’m weirdly excited about this book. It should be a fascinating read. Also, the cover lured me in because in almost unnoticeable type on the cover it says “Pssst… Hey There. Yes: You, Sexy. Buy This Book Now. You Know You Want It.” I’m such a sucker.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid – This seems like a book I should have read by now, because I feel like I hear it mentioned a lot. I’ll probably save this for B.o.B. week, since it’s a shorty.

After the Dance by Edwidge Danticat – Danticat heads home to Haiti to better understand Carnival, which had always terrified her. Seems like this will be part travel, part history, part memoir and I’m thinking it’s going to be fantastic. And also that I should read it on a nice, hot day.

The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez – I’ve heard this book mentioned a lot, and it was on the B&N “Buy 2 get the 3rd free” table, so I threw it in my pile. (Confession: I actually bought 4 books off that table. Oy.)

Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science – and the World by Rachel Swaby – Another book I’ve heard mention of, and it sounds AWESOME. The back blurb describes the obituary for Yvonne Brill – how she had a husband and kids and made a great beef stroganoff, and then eventually got around to mentioning that she invented the propulsion system that keeps satellites in orbit and won the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. Praising women for their contributions to science and the world? I am so here for that.

The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber – I’ve been wanting to read this for AGES and it’s in paperback now and it was on that B&N table so really it was meant to finally be.

Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski – I bought this last month but then I read Missoula and kind of didn’t feel like reading a book about sexuality and sexy times and whatnot. I think I’ve recovered enough now. Maybe.

On the Kindle/Scribd:

When to Rob a Bank by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner – Another Freakonomics-like book, and the audiobook is on Scribd. It’s basically a collection of their best blog posts from their websites, but I’m really enjoying it.

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander – This is about mass incarceration and the racism of the criminal justice system. I’ve been meaning to read it for a long time, and with current events being what they are… it seems fitting.

Radiance of Tomorrow by Ishmael Beah – I read Beah’s memoir years ago, and this is a novel by him. It’s been collecting dust on my digital Kindle shelf for far too long.

Comics:

Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man Volume 1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli – Miles Morales!! I haven’t read any Peter Parker comics, but I am sick to death of him because of the never-ending movies. This is the only version of Spider-Man I find remotely interesting right now.

Fables Volume 3 by Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham – Continuing on with this series, which will probably take me years to complete but I do really like it. This volume is called “Storybook Love” so I think we all know it’s gonna be great.

More single issues and stuff, clearly.

Alright, so that’s my list! I think I’m going to go paint my toenails and start digging into The Book of Strange New Things. What’s on your radar this month?

I feel like doing a post. But I don’t feel like doing a whole single book review. I was going to do another reviewlettes post, but then I realized it’s basically the end of the month and I should just put everything in my Mini-Review Recap next week. So. Here’s some random thoughts instead.

Starting off on a serious note…

More black people dying at the hands of police. Sandra Bland and Sam Dubose have been the most recent cases I’ve heard about. Rather than this situation getting better, it only seems to be getting worse. There’s a new case to read about almost every other day. It is heartbreaking, and exhausting.

It’s also infuriating. I follow 653 people on Twitter (holy shit, that’s a lot). I notice that only some news sites, authors, and activists that I follow (@deray is a must-follow) are the ones talking about cops murdering black citizens. I notice how many white people I follow who do not say a damn thing. Even if you’re just re-tweeting some news stories, ACKNOWLEDGE IT. Acknowledge that it is happening. A RT might spread the word to other white people in your timeline who haven’t heard the news yet. It shows them that you are paying attention to this thing, and that this thing deserves attention. It is quite literally the least you can do. Turning a blind eye because it doesn’t affect you in your day-to-day life is a huge piece of white privilege. Ignoring it only encourages the racists, or the white people who refuse to admit that racism is still a problem. Take five minutes out of your day to read the damn news stories, to scroll through the hashtags, and acknowledge it.

And let’s move on to some happier things I guess!

Wedding-type planning. So we’re going to have a ceremony at City Hall in January, and then a reception that evening. I am really starting to hate the word “reception”, as I was expressing on Twitter earlier this week. It brings everyone’s preconceived notions of what a reception should be to my doorstep, and it’s annoying the hell out of me. I’m trying to refer to it as a post-wedding party, but that’s so damn wordy. There will be food, there will be music, there will be fun.

I am having a lot of fun starting to piece plans together though. I have a Google Docs spreadsheet and everything. I should be emailing out the Save-the-Dates hopefully this weekend, and we set up an account at Honeyfund.com instead of doing the normal wedding registry thing, in the hopes that it’ll maybe help us to go on a honeymoon later, or maybe just be able to make a dent in saving for a house down-payment. Exciting stuff.

But basically, in terms of planning this whole thing, we’re just going to do what’s right for us and damn everything else.

A have some very mixed feelings about being engaged and not having spoken to my father since last September. There was probably never going to be a scenario in which he would be allowed to come to my wedding, but it does bum me out that I’m getting married and he doesn’t even know. Not that anything would be different if he did. He’d still be a racist, I still would not be talking to him, he still would not be allowed to come. I love him, but we a massive line dividing us that just isn’t going to be crossed. There is no possible way to reconcile. The whole thing sucks, but there’s no resolving it. It just makes me a little sad.

I am VERY psyched because Bout of Books is coming up next month, August 17th to the 23rd. I can’t wait, I could really use a readathon right now.

We saw Ant-Man, and it was fun. Paul Rudd did pretty good, but man I hated Hope. Bad acting, and I’m really not excited about possibly seeing her in future movies. This is so crazy because usually Marvel NAILS the casting.

I haven’t been reading much this week, which sucks, but I’m still watching season 1 of Revolution with the honeyman. It’s good, I even get into it sometimes – but honestly I could probably still walk away from it and never come back to it. I think we still have like 10 more episodes left. We’ll see if I move on to season 2 or not.

Working out and calorie-counting again! Need to get my ass in shape. New rules – I can only go pick up my comics if I’ve worked out 4 times that week, and I can’t buy a book until I’ve lost 5 lbs. Should be a piece of cake, right?

Mmmmmm… cake.

Oh right, this nonsense – a week or so ago Instagram banned the hashtag “#curvy”, claiming that they were trying to work on reducing porn I guess? Of course, “#skinny” wasn’t banned, and the arguably offensive “#bitch” hashtag was and is still allowed. Then they unbanned it, and curvy women were glad. Buuuuut now they’ve banned “#goddess”. What in the actual hell, Instagram? First off – ban the truly offensive words. Secondly – maybe try actually moderating content instead of just outright banning innocent words? Ugh.

On an interesting note – if their claim of trying to control the porn-side of Instagram is true, it’s interesting that they chose to ban “curvy”. Hell yeah, curvy women! But seriously, banning the hashtag was super dumb.

Aaaand let’s try to end this on a happy note – some more pics from our anniversary/engagement weekend. Look at how cute our moms are! My mom was all teary-eyed. And we played Borderlands together on two PS3s, on two TVs, because that’s how we decided to celebrate this year. Hell to the yeah.

I don’t have the focus for full-fledged reviews right now. And you probably don’t want to read them! So let’s just do some reviewlettes – smaller than normal individual reviews, possibly with bullet points, but slightly longer than mini-reviews. And I’m not going to summarize plots here- you can get that on Amazon or Goodreads or something.

The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson – I picked this up because it seemed summer-y (summer is literally in the title) and fun, and lots of people on the internets liked it. They were right.

LOVED

Women primarily in power

Sexuality, masturbation, and sexual activity treated in a matter-of-fact, not taboo way

Interesting thinky bits about technology and how far it can or should be integrated into our lives

Characters I got attached to

DIDN’T LOVE

Took me a while to build the world in my head. I needed more clear-cut information. Sometimes info dumps are a good thing.

Not 100% how the election system works. Seems like a king is voted for every five years. After the first year, the queen publicly kills him. The king has something to do with choosing the next queen.

If the kings aren’t supposed to have much power, why let them choose the next queen? Why not just not have kings at all?

Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer – I had been wanting to read this basically since it came out, and it finally because available on Overdrive. I think I’ll probably buy a copy eventually… there was a lot of meat.

LIKED

Krakauer’s delicate handling of the rape victims and cases

Lots of facts that can easily be looked up, especially about acquaintance rape

Engrossing – in that horrible, terrifying way that makes you never want to leave the house

Should be a must-read for everyone, men and women alike

DIDN’T LIKE

Sometimes Krakauer was blatantly a little less-objective in how we wrote about the lawyers defending the accused men. I have HUGE problems with the legal system and the way that lawyers try to attack the character of victims, witnesses, etc. But you know… it’s their job, and the system allows them to behave like that. No reason to try to paint an evil picture – the justice system does that on it’s own.

Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older – Have been looking forward to this for months! Well worth the wait. Making my sisters read it next.

Self-contained story that doesn’t need a sequel… though I wouldn’t be opposed to one…

DIDN’T LOVE

I wish there had been more shadowshaping – seeing art literally come to life is such a fun idea!

There we go, all caught up! Maybe it’s because I’m just getting back into the swing of things with blogging… but that was a lot more fun than sitting and writing three separate long reviews. So whatcha think, have you read any of these? Any of them on your radar?

Unfortunately, this will not include Go Set a Watchman because I haven’t run out to the store to buy it yet. I kinda sorta want to wait and see how people are feeling about it? Maybe? I don’t know. Anyways, this week’s topic is Last Ten Books That Came Into My Possession.

1. Mermaids in Paradise by Lydia Millet – I’m listing this first because I also happen to be reading it right now. I’m 60-ish pages in and it’s a HOOT. I heard it talked about on Book Riot and so when it was on sale at Barnes and Noble last week, I grabbed it.

2. Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older – This was my actual purpose in going to Barnes and Noble last week. I had to go to the one furthest away from me, but it was worth it. Plus we went to The Cheesecake Factory after book shopping, so it was all good. I actually finished this over the weekend already.

3. The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma – Alright, it’s actually starting to be somewhat of a concern how often I act on Book Riot’s recommendations. I think I heard about this on the All The Books podcast, and my library had it, so…

4. Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari – I’ve been listening to this on Scribd, and I also got the paper copy out from the library because I wanted to be able to see the pictures and charts.

5. Last Night by James Salter – This is a collection of short stories by James Salter, who passed away recently. I’ve never read any of him before, but I picked this up at the library cause I figured it’d be good #24in48 readathon material. I’ve read a couple of the stories so far, but we’ll see how it goes. I’m not a huge short story fan.

6. All That Is by James Salter – Because this was right next to Last Night on the shelf, and I believe it’s his newest book. And YES, I admit it… I heard them talking about Salter on the Book Riot podcast. GEEZ.

7. Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski – I’ve heard the whole damn internet talking about this book and how awesome it is for focusing so hard on female sexuality. Not sure why I was surprised it was shelved in the “Love and Sex” section at Barnes and Noble.

8. The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson – I bought this on my Kindle because I’d been wanting to read it for ages and it seemed like a good summer read. And it was.

9. The Color Purple by Alice Walker – Also purchased on my Kindle because it was only $0.09 for some reason. NINE CENTS. I have a paper copy, but it seemed silly not to splurge 9 pennies on the e-book. (OMG I just looked and it’s still on sale go get it! NINE CENTS!)

10. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid – I have never read this! And I saw it while I was browsing around the library, so I grabbed it.

Sooo there we have it! I made it a point not to list anything from Scribd, since that seems like cheating. ALL the books are in my possession! *cue evil laugh*

Alright, so what are the books that recently made their way into your hands?

Feeling pretty awesome right now – ran the 1.4 miles to Starbucks, got coffee, and then took the long way walking home (2.25 miles) while listening to Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari (Scribd is awesome) and drinking my skinny caramel macchiatto. And now I’m eating grapes and writing this and singing along to Avenue Q.

It’s a good Sunday morning.

I’m doing the 24 in 48 readathon this weekend. Basically, you aim to read 24 hours within those 48 hours. I managed about 7 hours yesterday… hoping to get in at least 12 today. So I’ll fail the basic premise of the readathon, but it’s fun. I finished Missoula by Jon Krakauer, and I’m about halfway through Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older. Going to hit the comics hard today.

That picture up there of Gabby basically hugging my leg is the cutest.

So, remember how my little sis became a federal officer and moved up to Maine with her son and Mom? Well, she just got offered a position in NYC, so they’ll be moving there in October. This is awesome! It’s closer, and they’ll be in a city with millions of people, instead of just 800 (not kidding, there’s actually only 800 people in the town they live in now. The closest pharmacy or WalMart is 1.5 hours away).

ALSO… I really really want to go to Book Riot Live in November, but didn’t buy tickets because I wasn’t sure I’d be able to afford getting a hotel for the weekend. But now that I could potentially crash of my sister’s couch, it seems so much more possible. Trying to think of how to scrounge up the money for BRL tickets now.

Hoping to get some reviews written during the week, and lots of reading in. Next weekend is our anniversary (8 years, hell yeah!) so I probably won’t be around much on the internet then.

I used Periscope for the first time this week! Used as in I watched a broadcast (pre-podcast prep with Fanboys At Large), not that I broadcasted anything. It was fun, and I can see SO much potential for it for a lot of things. I miss making vlogs, but my laptop is just too old for that now. My phone, on the other hand, is pretty great. Wondering if Periscope would be fun for book vlogging… any book bloggers use it that way?

Alright, I gotta hop in the shower and get more reading in. Only 15 more hours left in the day! How’s your weekend going?

This post is SO LATE. Shadowshaper came out on June 30th, and I went to my local Barnes and Noble, and they didn’t have it (didn’t sell it out, just not stocking it). I ordered it on Amazon instead, and chose the No Rush shipping because it usually comes in 2 days anyways and then I get my $1 credit for music/tv/books. Well by yesterday, a week later, I STILL didn’t have my book. For some reason the carrier had it marked as “signature required” and claimed they attempted delivery, but they did not, and why the hell would a signature be required… ANYWAYS, enough rambling. After lots of irritation and anger I made Amazon refund my money and keep their book, and drove like 20+ minutes away last night to the big Barnes and Noble to finally get it.

And this post is late all because I wanted Shadowshaper in my pile, because much excitement. Good lord. So here we are.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee – This is a re-read. I’m going to read the new Harper Lee when it comes out, but I thought a refresher of this would be nice since I’ve only read it once.

Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older – Older is awesome and I have been VERY looking forward to this.

Mermaids in Paradise by Lydia Millet – I’ve heard Book Riot folks praise this on the podcast, and I stumbled across it last night while at Barnes and Noble for 50% off. So yay.

Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer – I’m reading this now and it’s about as horrible and terrifying as you’d expect. Horrible as in subject matter, of course. The book itself seems really well-written. I’m about 35% or so into it.

The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson – BOOM, ALREADY FINISHED. But since it fit nicely into the picture anyways, I’m listing it. Always a nice feeling to add something to your list just so you can cross it off.

Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari – Listening to the audiobook on Scribd. He has a very distinctive voice, so I’m pretty sure this is a good choice. It’s a LITTLE weird to be listening to a book about technology/romance but also reading a book about rape, but I think the different formats may help keep them separate in my head. (I also recently bought Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski which is about female sexuality and stuff… after starting Missoula, I’m thinking that’s going to wait a bit.)

COMICS

Black Widow volume 2

Manifest Destiny volume 2

East of West volume 4

Postal volume 1

Plus a million other things because I’m so behind.

This week was supposed to be a big reading and blogging week, almost like my own private readathon. That has not really panned out so far, but I’m hopeful for the rest of the week. And the honeyman has drill this weekend, so I can always barricade myself in my apartment on Saturday or Sunday and read read read.

So yeah. That’s what I’m reading this month. I’m feeling pretty good about it. What are you excited to read? I know there’s a LOT of good books coming out this month, tell me what’s on your list!

Alright, the last mini-review recap I did was in April. I missed May and June, which sucks, so I’m just going to do a bit of a recap here for the last six months.

Let’s do stats first!

For book reading stats, I did pretty great at reading at least 50% women, and more than 50% POC authors.

The comics, all I have to say is wow, I read a fuck-ton of them. And I am so glad I decided now to keep track of the spending on those, that would have been impossible.

I need to spend more dollars on female authors. I know this will be a challenge, because there are a bunch of books coming out within the next two months that I really want to get and most of them are by dudes.

I’m pretty sure that this year might be the least I’ve spent on books ever. This is partly because so much more of my money is going towards comics, and partly because I’m using Scribd and the library a lot.

Did not realize how much of my reading was digital now! Part of this is because of Scribd, and I’ve been trying to utilize Overdrive more.

Some noteworthy books I read:

Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids edited by Meghan Daum

How to Be Black by Baratunde Thurston

everything by Daniel José Older

Zone One by Colson Whitehead

Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Noteworthy comics:

Bitch Planet

Birthright

Ms. Marvel

Genius (completed mini-series)

Daredevil (backlist)

RunLoveKill

March (Books One and Two) – a graphic memoir series

Nimona – graphic novel

I’m feeling optimistic about the rest of the year. I’m already 30% into my second book of July, and after the vacation season then work should be pretty normal (and, you know, I don’t have a job where I have to work 60 hours a week anymore).

I should hopefully have my July TBR post up tomorrow… I’m waiting for one book to come from Amazon, and it’s late, and but *fingers crossed* should get here today. I know, it’ll be silly doing a monthly TBR post already over a week into it… but it’s my blog and I’ll do what I want.

How has your 2015 reading been? Tell me things, I’ve been MIA for so long!

You guys, it’s been almost a month since my last post. That is so sad.

To say it’s been busy would be an understatement. Most of June was spent watching my nephew and waiting for the honeyman to come home. And then at 12:45 AM on June 19th he did get home, and I’ve been soaking it up. I missed that man SO MUCH, and it’s such a relief and a joy to have him home. I love him, and I love being able to touch and talk to him whenever possible, and love hearing his stories from basic training and love just spending time with him, and it’s all very wonderful. But between that and work, I haven’t had a lot of extra time for reading and blogging.

So of course, in July, I’m hoping to change that and bring some balance back. It’s going to be rough, because there are a lot of people at work taking vacation this month, and our anniversary is in a couple weeks, but at this point I’d be happy if I manage at least a post a week. And I REALLY need to catch up on my blog reader. I’ve missed reading your posts.

I want to keep this kind of short because I want to do another post this morning, so I’ll bullet-point some other note-worthy stuff.

I got a new tattoo! Well, technically 2 new tattoos. I got the NC non-compliant logo on my right wrist (the symbol for women labeled “non-compliant” to men and their standards in the comic Bitch Planet). I LOVE it. I love that it’s from a comic but that it’s a symbol for feminism and for refusing to keep quiet in the face of sexism. And I love that I had a lady tattoo artist do it. I always go to the same place to get my tattoos, and I just see whoever is available, but from now on I think I’m going to specifically request Ashley, because she was open and funny and did fabulously.

The second tattoo is the 3 little stars from the tops of the Harry Potter pages :) Because I really needed a Harry Potter tattoo. I’m going to add the stars to my other wrist at some point too, for a sense of symmetry.

I went with my older sister, Heather, and she got her first tattoo! Yayyyy, Heather! She got the word “Believe” with the stars at the end.

My mom and nephew are home from Maine temporarily while she tries to empty out the house so it can go up for sale. Love that they’re here.

The honeyman and I have been playing Borderlands together, since I finally got my character up close to the level his is at. And he showed me a shield and pistol set up that is SO much better than what I was doing and now my character is almost over-powered. It’s awesome.

I’m reading The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson, and I should be finishing it today. Considering we’re not even a week into July, this month is already looking better than June, reading-wise.

I saw Magic Mike XXL yesterday with my friend. Yup, that’s what I did for 4th of July. We brought amaretto sours in 1 liter bottles, bought sodas, and then dumped the soda out and refilled our containers with the amaretto sours and drank while we watched the movie. I don’t know how you could see these movies sober – they’re SO much more fun when you’re getting drunk. After the movie we walked around the mall a tiny bit to sober up before walking back to her house, and we played a couple rounds of Glow Golf (it’s this inside mini-golf place in my mall, and it’s dark with everything in black light and neon, it’s really fun), and then got coffee and chatted for a while. It was a blast. And then the honeyman took me home, I fell asleep, and then read most of the night while he went to play video games with his friend. So basically, it was a nice laid-back holiday.

It’s stupid that alcohol isn’t sold at movie theaters. At least, not in NY. I don’t know about other places.

Alright, that’s it for now. I got other posts to work on. My July TBR will be up soon – I’m waiting for a book to get here, which should be tomorrow.

Hey guys! It’s been a while! I’m still alive, but I’ve been stupidly busy. Here’s what’s been going on:

A big project at work has been taking up a bunch of my time since the end of May. This has severely impacted my reading time and ability to concentrate on anything not-work. Luckily, that’s winding down so I’ll actually be taking my lunches again and bringing my work laptop home less often.

My little sis graduated last week, so I went with my mom and nephew down to Georgia to see it and to bring her home. I can’t believe she works for the federal government now. It’s crazy. The trip was okay – some stressful times, and some good times. I was really glad to get back home. I missed my Gabby-cat like crazy and Georgia water smells gross.

And then this morning my mom, nephew, and sister just left to move to Maine. Which sucks, and I have some sads about that today. Stupid Maine.

On the bright side – the honeyman gets home in SEVEN DAYS. ONE WEEK. I so cannot wait.

That means this week I’ll be trying to clean up and get ready for him coming home. Stocking the fridge so we don’t have to leave the apartment if we don’t want to, doing big loads of laundry so everything is clean and fresh, de-cluttering some stuff, etc.

But I’m hoping to finish a book or two this week. We’ll see. I also have 30+ comics waiting for me to dive into, plus I’ve been reading some Daredevil on Scribd…

My job is moving to a new office in August, and I’ve been having fun thinking of decor. I’m going to go with a comics and bookish theme. I ordered this today: